


Hopeless

by Alierana



Series: Oneshots and Sinppets that might be added to (probably not) [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Fix-It of Sorts, Haruno Sakura-centric, I like making female characters strong, I might go back and correct this, Time Travel, incomplete but marked complete, really really really far in the future, there are probably errors, this was written a long time ago
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 07:03:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16403600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alierana/pseuds/Alierana
Summary: In a hopeless situation they are out of ideas. Sakura comes across a book that could have the answer they have been searching for and with nothing left to lose they take the chance on a jutsu that could send her back in time to whenever she chooses. time-travel Sakura/? While she gets a do over what can she actually change and what will stay the same.This was moved over from Fanfiction.net, the same as a number of other new things I am posting here, so if you follow me there you have probably already seen this.(as with all other works in this series feel free to take this and make it your own, no permission needed but a heads up would be nice because I would love to read it)This will also be marked complete as a warning that this might be as far as this story goes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written a while ago and I haven't gone and corrected it, though I might make minor edits in the future, so I am aware that there are some plot/character/spelling issues. Sorry about those.

Their dead, they are all dead. This isn't fair and it's definitely not how it was supposed to be. We were supposed to win. Danzo wasn't supposed to have killed Lady Tsunade and Naruto wasn't supposed to be captured by the Akatsuki and killed. Danzo shouldn't have been killed by Mandara, and Mandara shouldn't have led the surviving members of the Akatsuki on raids against Kohona so close together there wasn't a possibility of fighting back. There shouldn't have been so many Akatsuki still alive and they shouldn't have joined up with sound, and root, and cloud, and lightning. This really shouldn't have happened. All she was left to wonder was how it had happened in the first place.

Sasuke returned not long after he killed his brother. He was angrier now then he had ever been as a child after finding out the brother he killed was still a loyal Kohona shinobi. He was angry though no one was around to take his anger out on since all of the elders who had made the decision were now dead, killed by Danzo before his reign was brought to an end.

This wasn't how things were supposed to happen. Sakura closes her eyes to try to think and remembers how Hinata became depressed and how it was Neji who died to save Hinata during an attack. With no Hokage available at the moment and no way they could get one Sakura had been temporarily appointed, though it turned permanent seeing as that was five years ago and everyone said she was doing so well. She was the only choice available at the time since Kakashi had died in an attack about a year before and Shikamaru had refused adamantly after almost dieing in the attack that killed Temari and TenTen.

Sakura sat in the library thinking of a way to get them out of this. Their numbers were dwindling and their chances of surviving were zero to none. She was only a shadow of the person she used to be. Her soul was almost gone now but her abilities were better then ever. She had surpassed Tsunade at her highest peak. Almost every book in this library had been memorized and with her new position the same applied to every top secret book and scroll as well. She knew just about everything on every mission ever taken, including Itachi's.

Sasuke and Hinata had even allowed her full access to their clan's library as well. Shino and Kiba and Shikamaru had followed their lead. They were all friends and trusted each other so it wasn't even a hard decision. All they wanted now was a way to win this war, no matter the cost, and as Sakura read over a history book in the restricted section of the library, meant only for those with the Hokage's permission, or the Hokage themselves, she stumbled upon something she had never knew. She read it aloud to make sure she wasn't dreaming:

"Throughout time there have been powerful clans. This is nothing new or anything that someone would be surprised about. However there are a few clans that though powerful are only gifted only every century or so. These are not usually looked into and the child is seen as an anomaly and over looked. One of these clans is the Haruno's. Their clan, majority civilian even now, are one of the few gifted with a child every few centuries with abilities that are unique. One such ability is the appearance of an 'inner' during childhood. The 'inner' is their raw ability and power. As their potential integrates with their actual ability the 'inner' starts to vanish. Sometimes though if the child has no wish for power when they are younger their 'inner' may give them another ability not quite so demanded in that of a shinobi like courage or confidence. Another noted ability is their chakra control. Most Haruno's have good chakra control, if they have enough chakra to become a shinobi at all, but this child will have excellent if not perfect chakra control."

Sakura stopped reading for a moment. She couldn't believe that there was something written about her family at all in here. Her mother and father had been shinobi killed when she was four but they were never powerful and her aunt, her father's sister, who had taken her in had been civilian to the core. She had never dreamed there would be anything about her family in these books, and apparently neither had Lady Tsunade or she would have told her about it ages ago. Silently she took a deep breath and continued to read because soon she would have to get back to their problem.

"Because of this person's chakra control and 'inner' they also have another ability though little is written on this closely guarded secret. In fact it is believed that this family owned jutsu has been lost to time. This is because once the abilities of the Haruno's had flourished and every generation a child was born who at least had one of these abilities. It is assumed the lack of power comes from a lack of shinobi blood and being married to civilians so consistently. The jutsu has been noted below though only a Haruno with the proper qualifications can activate it, as it has been attempted by Uchia's who have tried to copy the technique. There are no noted successes."

At the bottom of the page there was a drawing meant to be copied as a circle on the floor and the hand signs noted as well as where a person should be standing. The only thing it lacked was a description on what the jutsu would do. From the symbols and certain warnings and markings she guessed it had to do with time or the flow of time. She fingered the drawing carefully before deciding to copy the bottom part then headed up to her office with the book to call in Sasuke and Shikamaru. They were the only two alive that she trusted so fully and with the power and knowledge to help her.

She sighed and straightened herself up before they entered and she wished that even someone like Ino was here or Choji or Shino or even Rock Lee. They entered and before they could say anything that could even sound formal she cut them off, "Could you guys sit down here I need you to take a look at something for me."

Five years later and she still couldn't get used to being in charge. They both nodded. "What do you need?" Shikamaru asked when they were seated and he was leaning back, though he looked nowhere near relaxed and he hadn't in such a long time. Sasuke "hnned" in agreement.

"I need you guys to give this a look and tell me what you think," she handed the book to them opened to the correct page then added, "And not the obvious either. Tell me what you think it does."

She leaned back and closed her eyes as she waited for them to finish. Between her nightmares, duties as Hokage, and trying to find a way to win this war she had hardly gotten any sleep in these last five years, not that she had gotten much since this war started period. She now understood why Tsunade used to drink and had taken up the habit herself, although less publicly.

"Where did you get this?" Shikamaru asked curiously.

"Hokage's personal library. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on to find something we can use."

Sasuke nodded as he looked again at the drawing. "Aa."

"Which explains why you are never at your home anymore."

Sakura nodded ducking her head before she changed the subject, "So what do you think it does?"

"Based on the diagrams and symbols it looks like it has something to do with time travel, though I can't be sure due to the lack of detail on the effects or information."

Sasuke added, "Aa, and it seems like you can decide the when just not the where."

"So how is the where decided?"

"Wherever you cast it I think, it doesn't say." Shikamaru answered.

"Anything else?" Sakura asked frowning.

"No, not after one look but if you would like us to look into it…" Shikamaru started before Sakura cut him off.

"Yes, both of you look into it and I give you full permission to use anything you need to find more information. I'll give you two weeks. After that we can decide if it is worth attempting or better left ignored. We can't afford to spend anymore than two weeks on it no matter how powerful it might be." Sakura said before sighing as she slumped into her chair exhausted.

They both nodded and Sasuke looked at her and said, "Now go get some sleep."

Then they were gone and she was left alone. She guessed that she should get some sleep but didn't want to go to bed only to have nightmares, so it was decided. She would drink, then sleep, then wake up and remove the hangover she would have before finally getting back to work.

What she didn't expect was that almost two weeks later a little after one in the morning there would be another invasion and she would be left walking through Kohona looking at the bodies of the remainder of her friends as she was ushered away from the scene by her personal guards.

The sight of her friends would forever plague her nightmares. Kiba's body torn to bits and the bodies of his killers shredded by his pet and friend who had died because of poisoned kuni to the heart. Hinata's eyes had been torn out of her body and limbs in the process of being ripped away.

She was now back in the safety of her office as she watched death happen through her window. "That's it I'm going down there to help." Sakura demanded.

The guards disagreed and attempted to remind her that it was their job to take care of her, not seeming to get she didn't need any taking care of. Before she could threaten them and remind them who the Hokage was and who could pound them into the ground Shikamaru came in out of breath followed by Sasuke, both looked worse for wear. "We figured it out." Shikamaru huffed looking nothing like his usual laid back self, "We were right it is a time travel jutsu. The only thing we don't know is how you'll go back, if you will be your new self in the time or in your old body."

"You control when you go by thought and concentration." Sasuke added.

"Will we do it?" Shikamaru asked her.

Sakura looked down at her village as they lost. They were loosing bad and nothing they did would give them a chance of winning, unless the war never started to begin with. Sakura nodded, "What do we have to loose?"

Neither said anything, because she was right there was nothing left to loose. With a nod it was decided and they were heading out to the edge of the village in the forest. Her four guards were confused by their conversation and sudden decision to move but none were willing to speak against them.

Once in the forest far from the fighting Sakura leveled an area large enough to create the drawing. Shikamaru dictated which way she should sit and how she should be positioned and Sasuke guided her thoughts, "Think of a time during your life otherwise were not sure it is going to work and we don't have enough time or chakra to try this a second time. Shit."

She felt it too. A group of about twenty were heading straight toward them. Sasuke told Shikamaru to take the rest from there before leading her guards to where they were coming from.

"Don't worry about us. If this works then none of this would have ever happened," and Sakura heard the hope in his voice. He had lost almost as much as she had and wanted this to work as much as she wanted it to work. "Just concentrate and do the hand signs, they are relatively simple."

She nodded and did as she was told. As she did she thought of when she would like to go back to. When she was sixteen and Naruto came back? When she was twelve and assigned her team? When she was six and enrolled into the academy? When she was four and her parents died? If she went when she was four she could start training before the academy to get ahead, she could try to stop Itachi from killing his family, she could stop Sasuke from leaving, she could save Naruto, she could save her friends. She thought of all she could do and concentrated on going back to when she was four; to being four and not having a care in the world. She thought about all the good she could do if she was four. She started to drift off tired and sunk into her own mind.


	2. Chapter 2

As she blinked her eyes she felt refreshed and awake, more so than she had been in many years but her first thought was still, 'Damn it didn't work.' In fact she almost felt like crying as her last bit of hope abandoned her. She hadn't cried in so many years but the destruction of her village and the killing of all of her friends felt like it earned some tears. It was only when her intense fear and dread wore off that she realized that she didn't sense any fighting around her.

Now instead of quick blinks her eyes shot open and she shot out of bed. She didn't think she'd been captured so why was she lying down in bed? It only took a second for her to find the answer. She was in her room. Not the room in her apartment that she bought at twelve when her aunt finally kicked her out or the room in her aunts house, but her room in her parents house. It worked.

She wasted no time in jumping out of bed and letting her instincts guide her to the bathroom. It had been so long she was surprised she even knew where it was anymore. She was there in no time and standing in front of a full length mirror. It worked and she was four years old. She had tiny hands and long doll-like pink hair. Her bright green eyes still shown with innocence and she had baby cheeks. She no longer had spiderweb like scars all over her body. She was also probably missing the scar on her abdomen where Sassori had stabbed her. Her toe nails and finger nails were painted pink and she wore a small pink nightgown with green frogs on it.

She tilted her head curiously and reached out a small hand to touch the mirror. Her toes curled on the tile and she realized they were cold. Her body was reacting to being cold, and it was now she noticed the goose bumps. Her eyes looked wet and she was borderline crying. Twenty years from now she would have trained her body to not react to anything, hot, cold, or pain. Her eyes went hard, no twenty years from now she didn't know what anything would be like only that it wouldn't be like what it was when she left.

There was a soft nock on the door and she heard her mother, "Sweetie, are you okay. I heard you rush to the bathroom, is something wrong?"

Wrong nothing was wrong everything was actually going her way for once. It had only taken a moment to realize that while she could run around her aunt's house at night her parents were shinobi so it was a whole different story.

Her resolve to be strong crumbled as she opened the door and saw her mom. Immediately she started to cry and realized she had no control over it. Her emotions were unguarded and she would have to fix that soon. "N-n-n-no mommy." She said through her tears.

"Did you have a bad dream?" her mom asked as she picked her up. Sakura nodded seeing no other reason why she should be crying. 'I'm from twenty years in the future and your dead,' didn't sound reasonable. "Then come and sleep with Daddy and me. It's almost morning anyway."

Sakura nodded into her mother's neck. It seemed to be almost two now. So it was the same time of day as when she left and she just ended up wherever her body was. At least now she knew a bit more about the jutsu she had done. Her fingers tangled themselves in her moms long white hair. She always thought her mother looked angelic. She was beautiful. Her mom's eyes were green but a lighter shade and her movements always looked like that of a dancer. Her hair was down to her hips and for the first time she remembered the original reason why she refused to cut her hair, she wanted to be like her mom.

The tears were slowing now as she tried to reign in her emotions and she did just in time so she didn't burst out in tears again when she saw her dad and his ruffled red hair peaking up at her through one squinted eye. His eyes were black but not dark. "Baby what's wrong."

"She had a nightmare." Her mom said sparing Sakura of having to try to answer through her tears.

With that she was put in bed between then and she stretched out making sure to be touching both of them at all times.

At first she had been worried all of her instincts would be shot to hell but that proved untrue when her mom and dad tried to get up at five and the slight rustling and woken her. She had to fight to stop her knee jerk reaction to hit something. That was also how she found she could still control her chakra perfectly though she had less to work with.

She had soothed her chakra out of her fist and feigned sleeping before her parents had even noticed she moved. Laying back down she went over her tasks in her head. First; find out what day it was and what day her parents would be leaving for the mission that would kill them. She had abandoned all hope of saving them before she had returned because they couldn't refuse the mission and if she told them what would happen they would think it was a nightmare and not listen anyway. Besides she didn't know exactly how it was they died anyway. Second; find out where Itachi is and how long until he is ordered to kill his family and decide on how to fix it. This one would be harder for sure but since she had read all of the old mission files she knew the dates of everything and when negotiations failed and why, so she would have to fix the family or the elders. Hard but not impossible she decided since also having decided she would keep up hope since the alternative was not an option. Third; figure out where Naruto is hiding and make friends with him. Fourth; find a place to train and figure out what she has to work with. Lastly; figure out how to hide her new abilities. She didn't know what exactly had made them put her on Naruto and Sasuke's team but whatever it was she didn't want to mess it up by getting powerful too quickly. She would stay at her original level all through the academy.

Now that she was satisfied with her list she stretched and blinked rubbing her eyes and then crawling out of her parent's bed to go find them, and when she did they were in the kitchen cooking silently. She fought a smile; her aunt had felt the need to prattle away while she was cooking about the town's gossip.

Then both looked up when they heard her footsteps, because she had remembered to make noise, (thank god she wouldn't want to explain that) and smiled at her.

Her dad who had just been leaning against the counter and watching her mom cook pushed away and walked over to her to pick her up. "You are a bit early aren't you baby?"

She bit her lip and looked up at him. What was she supposed to say? It had been years since she had a good nights sleep and even longer since she had slept past five. She settled on nodding and he smiled.

"Do you want to go to the park with me and play?" her dad asked. "Mom won't be done with breakfast for a while."

Sakura nodded this time more enthusiastically. The park would be the best place to find her old friends, or rather those who would be her friends. She wouldn't be able to talk to Naruto yet because she was sure her parents wouldn't like him and she feared they wouldn't allow her to talk to him and they would tell her aunt to watch out for him and that would hurt him. Sakura also figured that Sasuke would not be at the park considering his family probably would never think of allowing any of their kids to go to a public park, still though she still had a chance of meeting Ino or Kiba or TenTen or Lee there.

Sakura had to plaster a smile on her face and jump out of her dad's arms to grab his hand and drag him to the park; otherwise he would have seen her tears threatening to fall. She hadn't realized how hard it would be to even think about her friends, and was now worried about how she would react when she saw them.

When they got to the park Sakura froze. She couldn't remember what she used to do here. It was all so blurry and after her parents died she had stopped going to the park and started staying in her room and shopping and trying to look pretty. It had all been encouraged by her aunt who disapproved of shinobi and thought she would make a much better wife.

"Saku do you want to get on the swings?" her dad asked looking at her curiously because she hadn't run straight to them when they got there.

Sakura smiled and nodded as she approached the swings and sat on one. Before she could start pushing herself her dad was behind her doing it for her. At first she wondered why but the moment she thought of asking it hit her; she was four and girly and tired because it was early in the morning, and her dad always pushed her.

Things settled down into a routine fast. She would get up before breakfast and while her mom was cooking, so she and dad would head over to the park. In the last week she had ran into Ino twice but wasn't able to talk to her because she had been in a group all talking about her new toy. Sakura had also seen and managed to talk to Kiba would was playing with Akamaru and he let her play fetch with them. Sakura had also seen Naruto at the edge of the park but could do nothing but remind herself that she would soon get to speak with him.

She had also figured out her timeline. She had arrived two weeks before her parent's death and with one week already gone she only had one week left. Sakura had already decided there was no way to stop it so she had spent a lot of effort on drawing them pictures and telling them that she loved them. If they found this strange they said nothing about it.

Sakura had also decided she had about four years before Itachi would be ordered to massacre his family but she hadn't quite come up with an idea on how to stop it yet. Still she had some time.

She also decided to fix her problem of being weak. She couldn't do much until after her parents died because they were shinobi and would notice but she could and did do little things. This included doing push ups before she went to bed and making her bath water extremely hot or cold to get used to different environments. For a while she had considered weights but her parents pick her up a lot and would notice the difference.


	3. Chapter 3

With each day that was passing pretending everything was fine became harder and if she hadn't been so upset she would have been proud by how quickly she was learning to hide her emotions and lie directly without giving anything away. As it was though she didn't notice these things, instead she found that though it sounded easy in theory letting her parents go on the mission that would kill them would be one of the hardest things she would have ever done.

Still even with that knowledge the last week of her parents life followed the same routine Sakura had become accustom to. Not that she didn't wake up every night with nightmares that had at one point been real, and remembering how the bodies of each of her friends had been found, and how no matter what information they found nothing they did could stop Kohona from crumbling. When she woke up from these nightmares she would wish that she could drink like she had been doing in the future. Still no sake and a couple of nightmares was a small price to pay for a re-due.

When she woke up that morning there was nothing different than any other morning and it took her a while to realize what the difference would be. Sakura walked up to her dad and he said that he was sorry he couldn't take her to the park today. "Baby me and mommy are going on a mission for the Hokage."

Even though she knew this was coming it did nothing to stop the tears. Her dad picked her up and she could feel how worried he was. "Sweetie," her mom said coming up behind her and putting a hand on her back, "Don't worry we'll be back in a couple of days, a week at the latest."

Sakura nodded even though it was the last thing she wanted to do and let her dad wipe the tears from her eyes. "Now until we get back you will be staying with your auntie. Okay?"

Again Sakura nodded and fought back the tears so she could smile at them. "Kay, I love you mom and dad."

They smiled and she couldn't force herself to add, 'See you when you get back.' That was a lie and she knew it, she would never see them again. In a week the Hokage would come personally to tell her how sorry he was for her loss. This made her assume the mission was S-ranked and they had been picked out specifically by the Hokage. She also figured this was the case when she could find no information about their mission anywhere.

They ate breakfast together like nothing was wrong and had her pack some of her stuff and while they headed to Hokage tower her aunt stopped by and picked her up to bring Sakura to her house.

It was only now that they were gone and she was laying in what would officially be her new room in a week that she thought of a way to use this to her advantage. In the past or present or future, or god knew when it was anymore, but last time this happened she had waited for about a week and half before she had gotten word of what had happened. Now because of the files she had read and the information she had she knew they had known of her parents death five days before they had told her.

She understood why, she really did, but that didn't mean she couldn't use it to her advantage. She wanted the Hokage to survive. He was such a kind person and the a great leader. She could find a different way to get Tsunade here to help.

Her problem before this great idea was that she would never be able to speak with the Hokage and even when she did the conversation would be nowhere near privet so there would be nothing she could say, but if she waited a week then went to visit the Hokage herself as a crying child he would have to tell her that her parents were dead. He was a kind person and would do this in privet, so she could tell him then.

The thought still made her frown. She hated the idea of using her parent's death for something like that but she needed to make sure that things were different because she couldn't live through that again.

Thinking carefully about what she would say only lasted ten minutes before she decided that she would just go with whatever it was came to mind, she didn't want to sound like she was reciting a speech, like she was lying.

Sakura hardly noticed that it had been a whole day since her parents had left. She had been so caught up in her own mind that she hadn't even realized that time was still moving forward. In fact the only reason she realized it now was because her stomach was grumbling angrily. She was hungry and this was another thing that made her pause momentarily. She had spent years training herself not to be hungry unless she wanted to be she was surprised to have this simple need be so demanding again.

Sakura laid a hand on her belly and decided that she wouldn't eat. Being able to last on long missions with little food had its advantages. This was also a good thing if you were captured and not fed because food could be used as a bargaining chip and hunger was a hard thing to fight. She would eat only energy bars twice a day. This would be enough not to die of hunger but little enough so she wouldn't be forced to eat often on missions. As a side note it would also help with the bell test when she turned twelve.

"Sakura, it's dinnertime!" her aunt called upstairs to her.

It was then Sakura realized that she had forgotten about her aunt when coming up with this brilliant idea. It was a good thing though that her aunt would let her eat in her room and that she started getting less and less caring after her parents were pronounced dead and she declared that she wanted to be a shinobi.

Sakura made sure to be loud going down the stairs and to her aunt. "Auntie, can I eat in my room?"

Making sure to make her eyes big and sad Sakura used every talent in her four year old arsenal to make sure she got her way.

Her aunt looked down and sighed, "Sure Sakura but bring your plate back down here when you are done. Do you want juice or water?"

"Water." Sakura answered immediately before smiling and taking her stuff up to her room.

Now alone she sat on one end of her bed and placed her food on the other end. The cup of water sat on her dresser next to her and Sakura pulled out an energy bar and started to eat and try to ignore the temptation of the much tastier food. She really was glad that she had talked her dad into giving her some of his energy bars so she could 'practice eating like a shinobi'.

It was hard to eat the tasteless bar instead of warm meal in front of her but this time around she would not be weak. She would not be the one holding back her team and she would not be left behind.

The bar was gone before she realized it and she emptied her plate out the window where a few birds and cats started eating it.

After clearing her plate and bringing it back down to her aunt to watch she went back up to her room and looked out the window. Tomorrow she would get some weights, maybe five pounds each, to put on each ankle and wrist. That would help her stamina and muscles develop. She also wasn't risking anything anymore since she was sure that her aunt wouldn't try to lift her up but even if she did she could just explain it as a shinobi thing. That always made her aunt stop listening and because she understood so little about shinobi she would accept the answer. Tomorrow she would also go to the park and finally talk to Naruto. It had been extremely hard, harder than she thought possible, to see Naruto alone and not be able to do anything about it. Naruto was her brother and she couldn't imagine life without him at all. It had been hard enough after he was killed. Hinata and him had finally gotten together and her dad was forced to concede, not that he would argue much, because Naruto had already been promoted to Hokage. She would give anything for him to be happy and right now he was anything but.

With that decided she had nothing left to think about and nothing more to do, well except her bath, which would be ice cold tonight, and her pushups, though not in that order. That night when Sakura fell asleep she knew the nightmares would come and longed for when she would be allowed to drink, though she wasn't sure she wanted to pick up that habit again. She shook it off knowing that it could not be avoided and tired to hurry through her nightly activities.


	4. Chapter 4

It was no surprise to her that in the morning when she woke up at five her aunt was still asleep and did not look to be planning on getting up anytime soon. Sneaking out was not a choice because if her aunt found her missing she would, with out a doubt, freak out and try to keep a closer eye on her. Sakura's only real choice was to wait until she woke up and ask if she could go to the park by herself while her aunt was at work. She was sure her aunt would say yes but until then she had no idea what she would do.

As it was she ended up using the time to do some pushups and chakra exercises. Sakura ended up practicing making clones and transformations. It was the first time she had been able to use her chakra because her aunt could not sense it and did not watch her as closely as her parents had. She found though she knew the theory as well as ever actually doing it was hard because of her underdeveloped chakra. This led to her next training method which included moving the chakra in her body from one place to another; concentrating and moving all of her chakra into a hand, then a foot, then both feet, and then she tried to walk up the wall.

Her first attempt turned out as well as it had the first time around and by the time her aunt woke up she had just finished experimenting with medical chakra. Sakura had been happy to find that beside a tiredness she hadn't felt in a while she was completely fine and could do most of what she had been able to. Still she was disappointed with her lack of muscles and chakra but gladly both were things she could improve on.

When Sakura was sure that breakfast was ready she raced, loudly, down the stairs and almost ran in to her aunt. Her aunt laughed lightly as Sakura bounced up and down pretending to not be tired at all though that was not the case. "Auntie can I go to the park today?"

"Sakura, honey, I have to work so I can't take you to the park." Her aunt said patting her head as she filled a plate for Sakura.

"I can go by myself." Sakura said sighing dramatically, "I would go all," the word was drawn out, "the time with daddy."

Adding to the childish effect adults seemed to have a problem refusing anything to Sakura crossed her arms and pouted. Her aunt laughed and waved her hand, "Fine then go to the park but be back before dinner."

Sakura nodded and raced out before her aunt could remember that she hadn't eaten breakfast. She had already eaten the energy bar anyway.

Her first stop would be the park to find Naruto and before she went back to her aunt's house she would pick up the weights. She had already saved up enough because when she would ask her parents for money to get a treat she would only spend a little under half and weights were pretty cheap. It also helped that her parents were gone so if questioned she could always say her dad had asked her to pick them up before he left and that was how she got the money as well. She didn't care too much for lying but there weren't any better options available.

Still, Naruto first. With her day planned out finding Naruto would still be the hardest part.

At least that was what she had thought but it turns out finding Naruto was one of the easiest things she had done since she had arrived.

When she got to the park to start her search she found him alone, as always, sitting on the swing. There were two ways to approach this: the Naruto way or the calm way.

"Hey you!" Sakura shouted waving around wildly looking at Naruto who went to get off the swing and leave as soon as he saw her, "Wait don't leave!" she shouted as she almost wished she had used the normal way, but the Naruto way was so much closer to how a four year old would act, "Come here please!"

Now Naruto stopped. It seemed that he was confused about having been called over and not to be called a monster or demon or be made fun of. He watched Sakura curiously as she came up to him smiling and out of breath from running after him. "What?" he asked.

"I wanted to know if you would play with me but then you started to run away." Sakura explained standing up straight with a big smile on her face trying to hide the tears.

She missed Naruto so much and looking at him now made everything better. This time around he wouldn't die no matter what. It didn't matter if she had to die in his place but he would not be captured and he would not die.

"Why?" he asked looking at her curiously.

"Because I don't have anyone to play with. My mommy and daddy are on a mission and Auntie has to work." Sakura explained.

"You aren't scared of me?" he asked seriously.

"No," Sakura giggled, "Why would I be scared of you? You seem nice to me."

He seemed to think about this and Sakura couldn't wait until he was back to his loud, annoying self, or well became his loud, annoying self. "But people don't like me."

"So," now she was irritated, not at him but at those stupid, prejudice people who didn't like her best friend, "I like you. Now will you play with me?"

Naruto smiled now that he was pretty sure she was serious and really did want to play with him. "Okay." He said as he nodded and smiled that big smile she had missed so much.

She grabbed his wrist and drug him after her, "Good, now lets go play on the swings. Do you know how to swing by yourself, I do. I can teach you if you want."

Sakura realized belatedly that her happiness at finally having her friend back had made her sound exactly like him, loud and constantly talking.

He nodded happily and they both sat down on a swing. It seemed he didn't mind her talking a lot as long as she was still talking to him. When she started to swing without a push he looked at her amazed, "How did you do that? I can never do that I need a starting push but no one will ever help me start. Can you teach me to do that? Can you really teach me how? That would be so cool if you could."

Sakura smiled and started giving her lesson on how to swing his feet and move his body to get the swing started all the while smiling as he started to talk and smile more. Pretty soon they had moved from the swing to the monkey bars then to playing tag, and, before either of them knew it, it was almost time for dinner and she had to leave if she wanted to pick up the weights.

"I have to go." Sakura said sadly as she looked at Naruto.

He nodded sadly and it made her heart break, "Okay."

"Don't look sad." Sakura said, "I'm going to try to come back tomorrow so if you're here I'll see you."

He nodded then rubbed the back of his neck as his face got a pink tint to it, "What's your name?"

She almost laughed. She had been so caught up in seeing him she had forgotten that he wouldn't know her. "Sakura," she answered smiling, "What's yours?"

"Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be Hokage!"

Sakura smiled at the predictable Naruto answer, "Then I'll be the Hokage's best friend."

He smiled wider and waved as she turned to leave. She waved back then took off running to get the weights then get home before dinner.

As it turned out she didn't need any kind of story to buy the weights. The guy looked at her, took the money, gave her the weights, and then went back to reading his magazine. This was defiantly in her favor because as it was she barely made it home for dinner.

When she got there her aunt was already standing at the door and when she saw Sakura she smiled and went back inside. Again Sakura took her dinner upstairs and only ate an energy bar and tossed the food her aunt cooked. She took it as a good sign that she was already beginning to adapt to the lack of food, much quicker than she had the first time.

She brought down her plate then headed back upstairs and did her pushups then a few chakra exercises before getting into the bath and getting ready for bed. All of this she did while wearing her knew weights so it was done much slower than what she had become used to. She would not take off the weights though, she wouldn't take them off until she was just a fast with them on as she was with them off and when she took them off it would only be to exchange them with heavier ones. Determined and tired she went to bed and let sleep claim her.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning was the same as the morning before, including the part where Sakura rushed off without breakfast, but she did deicide that before she went to visit the Hokage she would have a real meal. Once she was satisfied she could live on the energy bars she would go back to eating normally, though not too much, and only eating the bars when she needed to.

Sakura also kept her promise to Naruto and met him at the park at about the same time as she had the day before. "Sakura-chan!" was Naruto's loud greeting when her saw her and he rushed up to hug her.

Everything went perfect, just as it had the day before, until it was lunch and they sat on the grass. Naruto pulled out his lunch and she pulled out a bar, which Naruto eyed curiously and as if it was going to jump up and eat him, or worse, he would have to eat it instead. Everything was fine until a group of kids a few years older than them approached. Sakura could already tell something bad was going to happened, and so it was no surprise to her when one of them shouted, "Hey girl, you might want to get away from the little demon."

Her Tsunade-like temper flared before she could stop it, "He's not a demon! You are a freaking jerk who is angry because he's too ugly to be loved." This was milder than what she had been intending to say, but had changed her speech at the last minute considering a four year old shouldn't know some of the words she had been planning on using.

It was immediately apparent that though she had found the rant mild the others did not, and that included Naruto who was sitting next to her with his mouth hanging open.

She recognized the signs before they moved. They were going to attack them. She had lived in a time of war for so long she was worried that if she fought back she would accidentally kill them. That would lead to her having to explain why she was so talented and why her instincts were that of a battle hardened shinobi.

That being said she was relieved that they were stopped by someone else before anything happened, someone who it seemed could also identify a pre-attack position.

"Leave now." The voice commanded with authority though it was never raised, and without waiting the group of bullies took off running.

It took a minute but pretty soon the voice sunk in and she realized that she recognized it. "Thank you Shinobi-san." Sakura said prettily and with a smile as she nudged Naruto, who was still stunned, so he would do the same and agreed, "Yeah, thanks."

Itachi nodded to the both of them. "You're welcome, but my name is not Shinobi-san it is Itachi Uchia."

"Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage!"

"Sakura Haruno."

He nodded to both of them and then looked at Sakura, "Where are your parents."

Sakura had to stop herself from answering automatically with what she knew would be the truth if it wasn't already, "They're on a mission so I'm staying with my aunt," she paused here and added a pout for show, "But she's at work so she lets me come to the park."

Itachi nodded again but was watching her more closely than before.

"Anki, come on." An impatient voice whined from the edge of the park.

Sakura hadn't realized that he had been with someone but just hearing the voice and one glance in the person's direction confirmed her suspicion. Sasuke was standing here, alive, and watching the exchange. The only thing she could think of was him running off leaving Shikamaru to explain everything to her.

She couldn't stop herself before she spoke, "Why don't you come play with us?"

Sasuke crossed his arms and she could just tell that he was thinking something along the lines of how much better he was and how he had so many better things to do.

Naruto followed her sentence in the way that she knew he would, "Yeah, why don't you come play with us? I bet you can't swing as high as I can."

Surprisingly it wasn't Sasuke who answered, though Sakura could tell he was dieing to take Naruto up on his challenge because some things never change, it was Itachi. "Why don't you Sasuke. We have plenty of time before we are supposed to be back."

Nothing else needed to be said before Naruto and Sasuke were racing to the swings.

"I beat you!" shouted Naruto when he arrived to the swings first.

"No way, you cheated, you had a head start!" Sasuke argued as they both got on to a swing and started to push themselves.

Sakura stood back and giggled as she watched their childish antics. It was so much funnier now when they were kids and it didn't look out of place like it would when they were both thirteen. As it was she was so caught up in watching them that she didn't even notice Itachi as he stood next to her until he spoke, "Are you going to play?"

Sakura shook her head. "I like watching. They're funny."

Itachi seemed to agree with this statement because she caught him slightly nodding from the corner of her eye. Then, a moment later, Itachi asked, "When will your parent's be back?"

Sakura paused then answered with a childish smile that didn't seem to quite reach her eyes, "The end of the week."

While purposely avoiding looking in his eyes she watch the boy's competition turn from who can swing the highest to who can run the fastest. She laughed again though she was less happy.

Itachi watched her confused. She hid her emotions incredibly well for a child but she was sad about her parents for some reason and when she laughed it sounded as though her heart wasn't in it as it had been before. It was such a small change most others wouldn't have noticed and he wasn't sure he hadn't made it up himself.

Sakura watched as they argued which challenge had been more important because though Sasuke had won the swinging competition Naruto had beaten him in the race, if only by a hair.

"Shinobi don't swing!" Naruto yelled triumphantly.

"You cheated! Rematch!" Sasuke yelled back before taking off and leaving Naruto to follow him.

Sakura noted that Sasuke was a lot more open as a child and could be considered normal, if not a bit spoiled, and he was certainly talkative when he wanted to be.

She wanted nothing more than her team back right now, and not the four year old version of her time by her Sasuke and Naruto from the first time around. She wanted them alive and well and here with her.

Still at least Naruto was alive here and who knows what happened to Sasuke after she left. She hoped that world didn't exist anymore because if it did they were all going to be dead. Even Sasuke and Shikamaru who had survived with her until the end.

It was Itachi who broke her from her depressing thoughts, though not intentionally, "Sasuke we've got to go back or mom will be worried."

Sasuke looked at him then nodded and Sakura could see the admiration for him and understood better now why his brother killing everyone had hurt him so much. "Okay Anki." A glace a Naruto and then he continued, "But can we come back tomorrow?"

Itachi looked at them carefully then nodded, "Sure I don't see why not."

Sasuke waved to the two of them and left with his brother leaving her and Naruto alone again. With them gone he turned all of his attention back to Sakura, "Why didn't you play?"

Sakura laughed. "Because I was watching but I'll play tomorrow, promise."

Naruto nodded happily before moving onto how he totally beat Sasuke at everything but he was too embarrassed to admit it, and he continued talking about how Sasuke was going down tomorrow until it was time for Sakura to go if she wanted to make it to dinner on time.


	6. Chapter 6

Everything was looking up. Sakura hadn't realized how much she missed her boys and having them back meant everything to her. She couldn't wait for tomorrow and for just a while she decided that she would pretend she didn't know anything and just play like a normal child would.

That was what happened on most days too. Naruto and Sakura would be already playing when Sasuke and Itachi would show up so that Sasuke could play with them again. No other kids would join in because Naruto was there but anyone who dared to say anything got an earful from Sakura or Naruto's new friend (though he would never admit it) Sasuke.

Itachi always seemed to watch from the sidelines but never really said much unless it was to make certain kids leave before there was a fight. Everything was going smoothly though. From her list when she arrived she could cross out the first one (which involved her doing relatively nothing) and could say she started the second one (having found Itachi even if it was accidental) and the third (she had been hanging out with Naruto a lot) and most of the fourth (seeing as she had figured out what she could do though she had not snuck out to train yet) and the last one she was still working on but she didn't think that it would really be that hard, act weak while in the academy.

She walked to the park as she usually would just thinking about what _her_ Sasuke and Naruto would say about this whole thing and what they would do.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted loudly grabbing her attention as she arrived. As always she had gotten there before Sasuke and Itachi but after Naruto. "Look! I am awesome Sasuke can never beat me!" he shouted.

She shook her head but couldn't respond as she was beaten to it by said child running at full speed toword the swinging blonde. "Wanna say that again! I can kick your butt! Remember the first time I destoryed you, just give up now."

Sasuke had used his speed to propel his at Naruto and nock him off the swing and them both to the ground. "You Teme!"

"Baka!"

Nothing else needed to be said before they were each on a swing doing their best to beat the other. Sakura heard Itachi made what she could only describe as a disappointed tsking noise but neither of the boys had a hope of hearing his disapproval over their own loud argument which had continued.

"See baka, I told you that you couldn't beat me!" Sasuke yelled as they finally came to a halt and were huffing considerably.

Sakura shook her head. She hadn't really expected them to fight this bad, but she guessed somethings just couldn't be altered no matter what was changed. When Sasuke was around them he talked (a lot actually if you counted arguing with Naruto) and she had thought she might have made him a different person. It worried her at first because dispite his flaws she would always love Sasuke and she didn't want him to be different but to be him. Still she had been suprised that when they were in pubic he went back to his mostly one word (if you can call them words) answers. It was a weird mix of arrogance and pride and (suprisingly) shyness. She had almost hugged him when she first realized that he was the same, mostly.

Itachi made another sound and Sakura tried to get them to stop. "Hey guys why don't we..." she let her words fade when she realized that they couldn't hear her over their own voices. With that in mind her tightly controlled temper snapped. A week, this had been going on for a week and it had to stop. First she was just happy they were alive, then it was cute and now it was frustrating. She walked over to them, lifted both of her hands, and lightly knocked them upside their heads. They looked at her as if she had grown a second head. "Now that I have your attention," she said giving them a sickily sweet smile, a silent warning for them to keep their mouths shut, "I think we should go get lunch."

"Okay but I want..." Naruto started to say but Sasuke slapped a hand over his mouth, it seemed even now he had no sense of self preservation but Sasuke took it on himself to protect his rival/friend.

"Let's have Sakura pick." Sasuke said after shooting a glare at Naruto.

Sakura smiled and grabbed both of their hands and lead them to a tempura shop she wanted to try (Itachi always paid anyway no matter the protest so he had taken to saving the money her aunt gave her for lunch for supplies) and neither tried to argue for the first time since they met.

Itachi shook his head and followed suprised by the little girl but glad the fighting had finally stopped.

It was only after they were done eating and heading back to the park the Naruto whispered to Sasuke in their first normal conversation, "Sakura-chan can be scary sometimes."

Sasuke nodded and kept looking ahead to where Sakura was leading, "I know and she hits pretty hard too." as he rubbed the back of his head.

Sakura realized that she had barely notice the time go by and wondered if she would have forgotten to visit the Hokage when they were about to leave Sasuke hadn't mentioned not being able to go to the park on the next day, Sunday, because of a family thing. It had reminded Sakura though and she had followed up on the idea saying her aunt didn't work (which was true) so they would be eating together (which was not).

She went to sleep on Saturday preparing herself mentally and when she woke up on Sunday she left like she had every other day not lying but not correcting her aunt's assumption that she would be going to the park. Instead she went to the Hokage tower and demanded to know why her parents weren't home. He did as she had thought he would do and commanded everyone to leave him and brought her into his office alone to try to explain.

Imagine his surprise when the little four year old he just brought into his office cast an S-rank sealing jutsu that stopped people from ease-dropping. (she had to practice a few times in her room before she got it right but it didn't require much chakra) She didn't have to because she saw it play across his face.

He stiffened almost immediately and the surprise was gone, replaced by suspicion. "What do you want?" he asked.

Sakura sighed and slumped in her chair before just talking through her thoughts, "I really wish I would have planned this. I mean it's not like you're going to believe me. I don't know why I jump into situations head first. He really must have rubbed off on me more than I had originally thought."

As she talked she propped up her feet on the desk in front of her forgetting that there was another person in the room. It was a habit she got from being stuck in this room for long periods of time during her five years as Hokage.

"I won't believe what?" he asked watching her carefully.

She wasn't acting like any four year old he knew and yet he had seen her over the years, glimpses, and he had sent her parent off on a mission where they had just been confirmed dead.

"Oh, I know!" Sakura exclaimed with a smile as she seemingly ignored him. "That book."

"What book? I thought you were here about your parents."

She immediately went somber. "To tell me they are dead right. I know, god I know."

His eyes narrowed, wondering how she knew. Still he asked the question that was bugging him most at the moment, "What about a book?"

Sakura looked at him though noticeably less happy now. "I had kept hope that maybe something I did different would keep them alive but then they didn't show up and you brought me in here when I asked about them." She sighed it had been a naive thought, "Anyway the book should at least back up what I'm saying at worse and prove it at best. That is if you don't declare me a spy."

"What is it." He asked having been sitting here for a while now and her saying nothing of importance, or at least nothing that he understood to be important.

"Oh right," she said as if she had forgotten the point, "I'm from the future." Seeing him start to talk she cut across, "Don't ask me for specifics and just don't decide that I'm lying until I'm done.

"Anyway I'm from twenty years in the future to be exact. Things weren't supposed to happen the way they did. Kohona was dieing, we were fighting a loosing battle and it seemed like everyone was dieing or breaking. In the span of twenty years we went through three Hokages and we were on our fourth.

"It was bad and you can't understand how bad. Nothing I say can make you understand exactly how bad it was. I went searching. Book after book, idea after idea I looked through every book and scroll and secret this village has to try to find an answer, to find something that we could do.

"It ended up being in a book in the Hokage's personal library about clan secrets. It was a mix of a bunch of stuff; things that had been gathered from well placed spies and simple observation and just well known facts. That book is what told me how to get back here. Granted there isn't much information in it and it was a gamble but there was nothing else to loose so we risked it."

She stopped now and let the Hokage catch up.

"So you expect me to believe there is a jutsu that allows time travel, and you used it to come back here. Who are you then?"

"I am Sakura, but I am for twenty years later. I know things that will happen because I have lived through them. You, the elders and the Uchihas have been arguing for years and trying to find a way to please all of you. The discussions have not ended yet and if nothing is changed I know how they will end."

This seemed to catch his attention, and he leaned forward in the chair he had sat in during her speech. Not many knew about the negotiations and he was interested to learn about how they would finally end. "How will they end?"

She shook her head. "Not well. It is the first of a long line of bad decisions that lead to our downfall. I didn't know this until I read mission scrolls but the discussions were ended when, in four years, the Uchihas decided to rebel and the elders decided to have them massacred." the fourth pulled back in shock but Sakura kept going, "Not only that but the massacre was done by Itachi Uchiha who had been only been following orders but was still found guilty and declared and S-class missing nin. The elders were angry because things did not go they way planned either. Itachi had more of a heart than what they gave him credit for and was unable to kill his little brother so Sasuke was left alive.

"Because of this Itachi was in the Akatsuki, who you probably don't know about yet. He was secretly a spy for Jariya but he is still a strong enemy to have. Naruto was captured by Deidara and Tobi. That was Sasuke's fault. Sasuke had killed Itachi, who had been holding them off to help us and Naurto, and they sent people who actually tried to get him."

Now he was looking at her as if he didn't know if he wanted to believe her or not. "Why would they want Naruto?"

She raised an eyebrow at him and scoffed. He could easily believe that she was twenty-four instead of four. He could see pain and experience in her eyes and her actions. "We aren't going to play this game. I know about the nine tails inside of him. The demon becomes relatively common knowledge after the Akatsuki shows up and starts capturing all of the demon containers in order to extract the demons."

"Why?" he asked leaning back. She was happy that he seemed to be listening to her and not disregarding everything she said as fake. "Why would they do that when they can't control it?"

She sighed and brought a hand up to massage away the headache with the healing chakra she had sent to her hand. "They do have someone who can control it though. Mandara Uchiha isn't dead and is the hidden leader of the Akatsuki. He hides himself with mask and the name Tobi. Believe me though don't doubt it he can control them because he can and he does."

He nodded. "I will have to find a way to check that I can trust you. First I need the name of that book. Then if you could copy some of the files you read by memory and maybe predict how a mission will go. I really don't know how to check this." He said sighing.

"I get it, I really do get it." Sakura said, and she did get it. If someone had come to her while she was Hokage and claimed that they were from the future she would have a hard time believing them and if she did she probably wouldn't tell anyone. He would check the information she gave him himself. "If it helps I am a medic and was trained by Tsunade. I can give you information about her too if that would help."

Now he sat up straight and really looked at her, "Tsunade? Does that mean she does come back? When?"

Sakura laughed. "A little after my team gets promoted to chunin she comes back to the village."

The fourth nodded and seemed to smile a bit. "So what can you tell me about her?"

"She's a strict teacher. Incredible strength and completely scary when she wants to be. She's kind of a drunk, well not kind of, and if it wasn't for Shizuo I wonder if she would be able to function properly. How old is she by the way? With that jutsu on she never looks a day over thirty. Still she's a great medic, the best I've ever seen."

He looked into Sakura's eyes and could see the emotion play across them. It wasn't a lot but enough. When she spoke her eyes were soft and full of love, she loved her teacher but what worried him was the sadness that had been in the background of that love. Still whether it was crazy or not he was starting to believe her. Now though he felt he had to ask the question that had been eating at him. "How do I die? You said that we go through three Hokages in twenty years so when do I die?"

Sakura looked down and nodded as if deciding something. "There is an attack on the day of the chunin exams. It's Orochimaru. Sand and Sound join together to attack us. You die fighting Orochimaru, it was an honorable death, and you are the only reason we are able to beat him later. Before you die you seal off his arms and it's one of the only reasons we were able to stop him."

"Oh," he said leaning back. "Who replaces me?"

"Lady Tsunade."

"And her?"

"Naruto."

He laughed at that, "So he does become Hokage then." This wasn't a question but said as he smiled.

"He was a great Hokage too."

"What happened?"

"The Akatsuki came and with Itachi dead they really did come at us and try to capture him. It was a long battle, we lasted longer than Suna when their Kazakage was captured, but they won and he was captured in the end. They killed him before we could even plan a rescue. It was horrible but the worst part was finding his body later. They had made sure he couldn't be brought back like Garaa."

"Who replaced him then? I assume when you left they were still alive."

"It took a while to decide because no one wanted to take his place and we weren't in a position to take our time with the war going on. I was the one who had taken his place actually."

"So that was how you read books in the Hokage's personal library." He said to himself as if finally understanding.

"Yeah, but Naruto would have let me read anything in there if I asked him to let me. He was my teammate and best friend and my brother."

They sat there in silence and she was sure he didn't know what to say because he wasn't sure he believed her. Sakura grabbed a paper off of the desk and wrote down the name of the book along with the page, she wrote down a few names (ANBU, Akatsuki, people she shouldn't know), a few missions that were taken around this time (who took them, how they went, and the aftermath), and some major events.

When she finished she handed him the paper, stood up, removed the jutsu and left with the words, "Find me when you make your decision."


	7. Chapter 7

Sakura went back to her aunt's house and pretended like nothing happened. He would come soon. The only question was if when he came if he would try to arrest her or if he would listen to her plan. It also made her more dedicated to her training and she decided the moment she left his office that tonight she would sneak out and train properly.

She was already running over places she could go where she wouldn't get caught and what she would do when she got there. She still had money saved and had been slowly adding to the amount so she would have to buy a few kuna and senbons. A kanta would be nice but there were hard to hide so she would have to wait on that but she could carve a practice one out of a tree branch or something. Her weights were barely detering her movements anymore so she would have to add a few pounds to each limb.

While she was busy musing her aunt called her down for lunch, still curious as to why she had come back so soon. Sakura responded automatically, "I wanted to spend some time with you today since you don't work," as she skipped down the stairs. Her only regret about the time to come would be the fact she would have to pretend to be weak. She could still ace every test because she did that the first time but she wouldn't be able to show off her chakra control or her accuracy or even her skill with genjutsu.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs her aunt gave her a small serving of food. Her aunt must have noticed her look because she stated, "Sakura you are a pretty girl now but if you keep eating such big amounts like you have been you won't be able to stay pretty."

"Auntie..." Sakura started but was cut off.

"No Sakura. Girls rely on their figures to get husbands and all kinds of other things. You need to stay pretty, you have so much potential. From now on you are on a diet of sorts."

Sakura could only nod. This was reminding Sakura why she was so weak in the academy. She had adapted her aunts mindset the first time around and the only thing that they didn't agree on was her staying and becoming a shinobi. It was one of the reasons why she hadn't mentioned being friends with Sasuke to her aunt. Her aunt would recognize his last name and try to push her into becoming a fangirl. It wasn't like she needed the money, the Haruno's were a well known civilian familiy and had a lot of money. What they lacked was a connection to a powerful family in the shinobi world. In her old life she had never thought enough of the power of her family to mention it to the others, she didn't think it would mean anything to them. She didn't even mention it when she found out she was the rightful heir to the family when she was thirteen. She was much too worried about Sasuke at the time but this time she would take advantage of the position she would be given instead of asking them to pass her over.

Her aunt continued to talk and didn't seem to notice that she was only half paying attention. Soon she was talking about a shopping trip so Sakura smiled and agreed to the shopping trip and as soon as she ate (she didn't complain about the amount because she would have to get used to surviving on very little just not for her figure) they left and headed to the stores.

Sakura held tightly on to her aunts hand and let her lead at first but at the last minute would always manuver her aunt into going wherever she wanted. She would be five in a matter of weeks and so her aunt informed her that this would be an early birthday present. This allowed Sakura to pick out what she wanted no matter how much her aunt dissaproved, to a certain extent at least. She bought tight black pants and a long red top that could almost pass for a short dress. The sleaves were long, to the tips of her fingers, and tight, so they wouldn't get in her way, and the bottom of the shirt slightly fanned out. They weren't close to shinobi clothes but they were as close as her aunt was getting. Besides they would be better than anything her aunt had gotten her the first time around. Lastly Sakura was bought black boots and a set of bandage wrapps. Her aunt didn't ask about the last item which suited Sakura fine because she wouldn't have answered, at least not honestly anyway. Later she would have to go back and when she did she was leaning toward cargo pants and a red tank top. Even that though would be just for a while, until she was put on her genin team and could get real shinobi clothes. For now she understood that she could push her aunt no farther.

When they got home it was getting dark and so while dinner was being made Sakura rushed upstairs to prepare her stuff for training tonight. She wouldn't want to stumble around, not that she thought she would, and wake up her aunt. Sakura also examined a map of the city to see if she could find a place where she wouldn't be found out. The training grounds were out because she knew ANBU preferred trainning at night there so they wouldn't be caught as often. Her refuges at the Nara house and the Uchiha place were out too. That meant she could either find a random place in the forest or exit the village. Common sense won out leaving her to choose a place in the forest. She still wasn't confiedent in her stamina yet so while sneaking out of the village would be easy sneaking back in after training would probably be close to impossible.

"Sakura!" Her aunt hollered.

Sakura rolled her eyes at her aunts antics. At least now she had a better idea as to why she turned out the way she did the first time around. Still she could not ignore her aunt so she went downstairs for what was sure to be a disappointing dinner, and it was. The portions were small and everything was healthy. It helped that she wouldn't have to worry about eating to much and getting used to eating. Still it didn't taste much better than the bars she had been eating.

"So Sakura have you made any friends?" her aunt asked with a false smile.

Sakura looked down and tried to figure out how to get out of answering. Her aunt didn't know yet that her parents were dead so she was still going to play the roll of a caring gardian. Still her aunt wouldn't like her hanging out with Naruto and if she was in the caring mood she would do her best to seperate them and even after her caring mood past she would still stand by that because no matter the order or the situation she hates to be disobeyed. Her reaction to Sasuke would be even worse. She would try to get Sakura to chase him again and get them together because of the family that he comes from and his looks. She couldn't go through that again, she refused to chase Sasuke.

"Not really Auntie."

Her Aunt nodded as if that wasn't such a suprising fact. Sakura was again reminded of how her aunt enjoyed putting people down and she was one of those people. She didn't want to say anything that would cause her aunt to start questioning her more or setting her up with people. Even at age four, almost five, she wouldn't put it past her aunt. In fact her aunt would probably hope something like if she found a good civilian boy she would put aside her shinobi dreams. Her aunt tolerated Sakura's dreams later on after she realized Sakura was serious because she believed deep down Sakura would end up with Sasuke.

It upset Sakura when her aunt died when she was fourteen but she didn't tell anyone who didn't need to know because though she cared about her aunt she never loved her aunt. Sakura hadn't told Naruto because he had no family and she was worried about what he would think of her. Her aunt was her only remaining family she knew of and she didn't miss her as much as she should. She hadn't even really cried over her death, mostly because their arguements had gotten worse after she turned down being the families heir. Her aunt had really wanted the money. Her dad's brother was the leader of the family but he had died without a child and his wife had passed away a few years prior. She was the only living relitive of the main branch. Her aunt was her mom's sister and they had come from a well off but not all around great family. That was probably why her aunt was obsessed with status. If she accepted this time, which she probably would, she would move out of her aunt's house.

"Well that's fine you'll get some friends eventually. You could work with me at the store and meet people there."

Sakura shook her head, "No thanks Auntie I want to be a shinobi like mommy and daddy w-are."

She had to take a breath as she had almost said were instead of are. She had to calm down because she would not give anything away to her aunt. With that in mind she tried to eat a bit faster to avoid more conversations and get away so she could finally get some real training.

Her aunt didn't say anything else and instead went back to eating and started ignoring Sakura. Sakura noticed she usually did this after she was disobeyed. It didn't bother her much and only made it easier to finish her dinner quickly and leave the kitchen and head to her room.

Sakura used her extra time to make sure the two kuna she owned were in the backpack with everything else she had. Mostly it was random medical supplies she had managed to gather and cheap scrolls she could use to seal things in. One of said scrolls was already opened on the floor and was used to store the backpack. It would be easier to carry a scroll instead of a bag. She was also satisfied to find her parents summoning scroll was where she had found it when she was seventeen, under the floorboard in the kitchen of her aunts house beneath the counter.

Her parents had never made a deal with the summons because they weren't strong enough but they had left it in a place they figured she would find if anything ever happened to them.

With both scrolls tucked away she slipped under the covers to wait until her aunt went to bed, which she figured wouldn't take long. She heard her aunt wash the dishes, climb up the stairs, get into the shower, and when the sounds stopped Sakura figured she had gone to bed. After waiting about fourty minutes to be sure she finally slipped out of her room to go to the edge of town for practice.

Sakura completely hid her chakra as she had been practicing since she got to her aunts house and slipped out the window and into a tree.

When she got there she took out a kuna and aimed it at a spot on a tree several yards away. She wasn't suprised, but a bit disappointed when she missed the spot by a few inches. Her muscles weren't used to the act of throwing the little metal object yet. She also assumed that she would have done worse if not for the fact that she had already started to retrain her muscles with simple exersizes and the weights she was wareing.

She threw the other and was happy she was within centimeters. Usually it would take days to improve to such a degree but she wasn't learning she was tring to remember and force her body to remember the action. She retrieved the kuna and threw them again. After repeating this process about sixteen times she found that it wasn't as hard to relearn as she had thought it was going to be at first. Sakura could now hit any pinpoint with one shot. This would help because she could now chose exactly to what deal she would fail at the academy. The senbons were the same, after only a few tries she could hit any spot perfectly, and after about an hour she could throw about six at the same time. She was feeling more satisfied than she had in ages. Next she picked one of the kuna's up again and threw it at the same spot she had been but this time forced some of her chakra in it and wasn't suprised the the kuna broke on impact, along with the tree she had hit. She lightly tapped the ground using her chakra enchanced fist, just for practice, and was satisfied when some cracks appeared in the earth.

She went through some practiced movements and fighting styles and stretched until she finally felt as if she had accomplished something.

When she stopped and survayed the damage she found the cracks were hardly noticeable and everything looked pretty normal. The only thing that was out of place was the shattered tree and in a few minutes she had that picked up by taking shards of it and spreading it out around the forest and breaking the bigger pieces and making them smaller.

After checking to make sure everything else was in order she headed back to her aunt's house.


End file.
